Religious Zionism

I don't see a scenario in coming days before the election of an initiated action by us, with the exception of a defensive action.

The chair of the Amchai Israel party, Ofer Winter, last night rejected the offer of Cabinet Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionism Party to drop out of the race in exchange for a ministerial appointment afterwards.

You are mixed up, Winter said.

We did not come for a job, as you have become accustomed to.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces significant challenges in forming a governing coalition.

Political analyst Dr. Gail Talsia notes that Netanyahu is entering this election in his weakest position in a decade, partly because key right-wing parties like Religious Zionism and Yehudit, Yehudit have not merged as hoped, potentially leading to wasted votes below the three point two five percent electoral threshold and impacting Netanyahu's bloc.

The opposition, led by Gardi Ezencot, also struggles to secure a clear majority.

Veteran pollsters predict a difficult test for Netanyahu's bloc in voter turnout.

This testimony, unusually approved by the judges, is considered central to determining whether the Prime Minister committed criminal offenses.

Additionally, the Likud and Religious Zionism parties are cooperating with a joint field headquarters and campaign to save the right-wing bloc, a move that appears to exclude Itamar Ben-Gvir and his defense minister aspirations.

On the economic front, The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is in discussions to acquire the Israeli artificial intelligence startup Descartes in a deal potentially valued at around seven billion dollars.

And in uplifting news, US Special Envoy Rabbi Yehuda Kaplan has reportedly honored Israeli plumber Yaniv Ha'on as a real-life hero.

Arab parties and Arab candidates and far-right parties in the coalition.

So there were other petitions that were brought forward against, specifically, Itmar Ben-Gur's Otzma Yehudit, and also Batros Motric's Religious Zionism, which were not upheld.

None of the other petitions were upheld.

The only petitions that were voted, that were supported by the committee, were against Arab candidates.

This is Naomi Segal with the top news at this hour.

The Central Elections Committee has overwhelmingly rejected a request to disqualify the religious Zionism party from running in the upcoming election.

The vote was 21 against disqualification and three in favor.

Earlier, the committee rejected a request to disqualify the far-right Atzma Yehudit party of Itamar Ben-Gvir from running.